Congratulations! You have had a new set of braces placed today.

In our office, we use the most up to date bonding methods available. Your brackets and bands are designed to withstand up to ten lbs. of pressure and will hold throughout your treatment, in most cases, if you follow our basic instructions for care. Most breakage occurs when patients indulge in foods that are off limits during treatment. These would include anything that is hard, sticky or chewy.

If you discover you do have something broken, please call our office as soon as possible. Some breakage needs to be taken care of right away, while some breakage can wait until our mutual schedules can more easily accommodate a repair appointment.

Please do not wait until your regular adjustment appointment to inform us of the breakage. Time is allotted for the procedure we have planned only. Often we do not have time to do both the repair and planned adjustment. Consequently, excessive breakage will influence the length of your overall treatment. A call ahead of time may allow us to add more time to an adjustment appointment, or schedule a separate repair appointment as soon as possible.

When calling to report breakage to our schedulers, please be specific. This will allow them to determine the amount of time to schedule to complete the repair procedure and allow Dr. Way to give his undivided attention to your treatment.

Learn the names of the appliances so you can be descriptive when calling. Such as:

• Brackets: Braces bonded to the front of the teeth.
• Bands: Circular metal braces on molar teeth.
• Archwires: Large main wire.
• Color Rings: Colored elastic ties, holding the archwire to the bracket.
• Chain: Colored elastic ties that are connected in a chain.
• Wire Ties: Fine wires used to secure an arch wire to brackets.

Occasionally during treatment, the archwire may shift and become more exposed behind the molar band on the side. This can be very uncomfortable and we will remedy this as soon as possible. Be sure to notify our front office any time there is discomfort due to a wire poking, or a wire out of the slot. Please use the wax provided until we see you to help prevent irritation.

Graduation!

Congratulations, you have now graduated from our office! Although we will not be seeing you every six months for retainer checks, it is still important to us that your smile stays as beautiful as it is today. Your instructions are as follows:

Dr. Way wants you to wear your retainers every night until the age of 21. At that time you can start wearing your retainers just 3 nights per week. Make Monday, Wednesday, and Friday retainer nights. If your retainers still fit the way they always have and you do not notice any movement of your teeth, then after a few months you can drop down to just one night per week. But if you want your teeth to stay straight you need to wear your retainers at least one night a week forever! Studies have shown that even people whose teeth came in perfectly straight experience some crowding, especially in the lower front teeth, later in life. You can prevent this by consistent retainer wear.

We are always here if you need us. If you break a retainer or lose one, please do not hesitate to call. It is important to have it replaced before thins start to shift or move. And if you ever have any questions, we are only a phone call way! Congratulations, enjoy your wonderful smile!